In her speech, Clinton gave a glowing review of the Russian president, saying he is a “very interesting conversationalist” whom she claimed she had gotten to know. She bragged that he had invited her into his “private inner sanctum” to discuss wildlife conservation.

In June of 2013, at a Goldman Sachs event, Clinton also spoke kindly of Putin, saying, “I last saw (Putin) in Vladivostok where I represented President Obama in September for the Asia Pacific economic community. I sat next to him. He’s an engaging and, you know, very interesting conversationalist.”

She praised him further, saying: “We talked about a lot of issues that were not the hot-button issues between us, you know, his view on missile defense, which we think is misplaced because, you know, we don’t believe that there will be a threat from Russia. And finally on Afghanistan and Russia. Look, I would love it if we could continue to build a more positive relationship with Russia.”